A vehicle-ramming attack, also known as a vehicle as a weapon or VAW attack,[1] is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, people,[2][3] or another vehicle. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence analysts, this attack represents a relatively new militant tactic that could prove more difficult to prevent than suicide bombings.[4]
Deliberate vehicle-ramming into a crowd of people is a tactic used by terrorists,[5] becoming a major terrorist tactic in the 2010s because it requires little skill to perpetrate, cars and trucks are widely available, and it has the potential to cause significant casualties.[6][7][8] Deliberate vehicle-ramming has also been carried out in the course of other types of crimes,[9] including road rage incidents.[10][11] Deliberate vehicle-ramming incidents have also sometimes been ascribed to the driver's psychiatric disorder.[12][a]
Vehicles have also been used by attackers to breach buildings with locked gates, before detonating explosives, as in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack.[13]
Causes and motives
Ease
According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the tactic has gained popularity because "Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience."[2] Vehicles are as easy to acquire as knives, but unlike knives, which may arouse suspicion if found in one's possession, vehicles are essential for daily life, and the capability of vehicles to cause casualties if used aggressively is underestimated.[14]
Vehicle attacks can be carried out by lone-wolf terrorists who are inspired by an ideology but who are not working within a specific political movement or group.[16] Writing for The Daily Beast, Jacob Siegel suggests that the perpetrator of the 2014 Couture-Rouleau attack may be "the kind of terrorist the West could be seeing a lot more of in the future", a kind that he describes, following Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corporation, as "stray dogs", rather than lone wolves, characterizing them as "misfits" who are "moved from seething anger to spontaneous deadly action" by exposure to Islamist propaganda.[17] A 2014 propaganda video by ISIL encouraged French sympathizers to use cars to run down civilians.[18]
According to Clint Watts, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where he is a senior fellow and expert on terrorism, the older model where members of groups like al-Qaeda would "plan and train together before going to carry out an attack, became defunct around 2005", due to increased surveillance by Western security agencies.[17] Watts says that Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born al-Qaeda imam, as a key figure in this shift, addressing English-speakers in their language and urging them to "Do your own terrorism and stay in place."[17]
Jamie Bartlett, who heads the Violence and Extremism Program at Demos, a British think tank, explains that "the internet in the last few years has both increased the possibilities and the likelihood of lone-wolf terrorism", supplying isolated individuals with ideological motivation and technique.[19] For authorities in Western countries, the difficulty is that even in a case like that of the perpetrator of the 2014 Couture-Rouleau attack, where Canadian police had identified the attacker, taken away his passport, and were working with his family and community to steer him away from jihad, vehicle attacks can be hard to prevent because, "it's very difficult to know exactly what an individual is planning to do before a crime is committed. We cannot arrest someone for thinking radical thoughts; it's not a crime in Canada."[19][20]
According to Stratfor, the American global intelligence firm, "while not thus far as deadly as suicide bombing", this tactic could prove more difficult to prevent. No single group has claimed responsibility for the incidents.[4][clarification needed] Experts see a saving grace in the ignorance and incompetence of most lone-wolf terrorists, who often manage to murder very few people.[19]
Protest encounters
Vehicular ramming has sometimes been advocated to attack protesters who block public roadways in the United States. Two police officers were suspended and fired in January and June 2016, respectively, for tweeting such advice about Black Lives Matter rallies, which have sometimes been broken up by cars. North Dakota state legislator Keith Kempenich tried and failed to pass a law granting civil immunity to drivers who accidentally hit activists after his mother-in-law was stopped by Dakota Access Pipeline protesters, and Tennessee Senator Bill Ketron did likewise after a man hit an anti-Trump group. Similar legislation has been introduced in Florida and Texas.[21]
Protective measures against vehicle attacks are known as hostile vehicle mitigation. This involves reducing the risk posed by vehicle as a weapon attacks through a mixture of measures. Visibly this often includes physical barriers, but also includes other measures such as deterrence, staff training, traffic management, and incident response planning.[22]
Security bollards are credited with minimizing damage and casualties in the 2007 Glasgow Airport attack,[23][24] and with preventing ramming in the 2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, leading the assailant to abandon his car and attack pedestrians waiting at a bus stop with a knife, after his effort to run them over was thwarted.[25] However, Berlin's police chief, Klaus Kandt, argued that bollards would not have prevented the 2016 Berlin truck attack, and that the required security measures would be "varied, complex, and far from a panacea".[26]
On 23 October 2014, the US National Institute of Building Sciences updated its Building Design Guideline on Crash- and Attack-Resistant Models of bollards, a guideline written to help professionals design bollards to protect facilities from vehicle operators, "who plan or carry out acts of property destruction, incite terrorism, or cause the deaths of civilian, industrial or military populations".[27] The American Bar Association recommends bollards as effective protection against car-ramming attacks.[28]
In January 2018, it was announced by the then mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, that the city planned to install 1,500 steel street barriers to prevent vehicle attacks. This came after the city's two vehicle-ramming attacks in 2017 killed nine people.[29]
Münster has been planning to install security bollards in public areas in response to vehicle-ramming attacks in European cities, including the Berlin attack.[30] While only selected locations can be protected this way, tight bends and restricted-width streets may also prevent a large vehicle getting speed before reaching a barrier.[31]
Modern Internet-connected drive-by-wire cars can potentially be hacked remotely and used for such attacks. To demonstrate the severity of this type of attack, 2015 hackers remotely carjacked a Jeep from 10 miles away and drove it into a ditch.[32][33] Measures for cybersecurity of automobiles to prevent such attacks are often criticized as being insufficient.[citation needed]
In Toronto, older transit buses and sanitation vehicles are used, providing a more benign public experience.[34]
27 December 2009 Tehran Iranian Regime's "security forces" Pick Up Trucks attack, Iran (1 truck ramming people and second truck going over them). (YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biULE683uc8)
2017 Westminster attack, London, England, United Kingdom (ramming and stabbing; some victims were thrown off Westminster Bridge by the ramming; 5 killed)
1 July 2020 Wan Chai attack, Hong Kong (a motorcyclist rammed his motorcycle into police officers, none killed)[39]
2021 London, Ontario truck attack: A 20-year-old man rammed with his truck against random Muslim pedestrians, killing a family of four and wounding a boy. The attacker was convicted of murder and the judge deemed the attack terrorism.[40]
1953 Elias Antonio case, Syrian merchant who killed one person and wounded up to 29 others in Bento Ribeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when ramming his car into a carnival block[50][51][52][53][54][55]
1983 Douglas Crabbe drove a 25-tonne Mack truck into the crowded bar of a motel at the base of Uluru on 18 August 1983. Five people were killed, and sixteen were seriously injured.
1994 - An off duty Federal Express pilot Auburn Calloway attacks the pilots of Federal Express Flight 705 and attempts to take over the plane so that he can crash into the airport. He is stopped by the pilots.[69]
1995 New York City attack (ramming and stabbing).[70]
1995 Shawn Nelson case, a plumber using a stolen tank to go on a rampage
1999 Emiko Taira (mother of Japanese pop singer Namie Amuro) and her husband Tatsunobu Taira were walking along a road near National Highway No. 58 in Ōgimi, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan when Tatsunobu's brother Kenji Taira backed his car into a telephone pole and ran over the couple on 17 March 1999. Emiko Taira was killed. Kenji Taira later committed suicide.[72]
2012 Cardiff Hit and Run Rampage Matthew Tvrdon, under a psychotic episode, got angry with a woman and began ramming her and numerous pedestrians with his van over eight miles for 30 minutes, killing Karina Menzies and injuring 12 others. He admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and is detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.[90]
2014 Roppongi(Japan) Vehicle ramming attack(using a bicycle) and Violent Deeds.[1](Counter-Racist Action Collective(c.r.a.c) members attacking against Zaitokukai demonstration.)
2018 Mishui vehicle attack (ramming people at a square, killing 15 people and injuring 43 others; perpetrator sentenced to death)[134]
2018 Ningbo attack (ramming and stabbing). 3 dead, 15 injured.[135]
2018 Brăila attack, Romania. Attacker was under effects of drugs.[136]
2018 Newport Wales Hit and Run 4 injured on 29 April when a teen driver smashed into a crowd outside a nightclub claiming to try to stop a brawl, then fled and set his car on fire. He was found guilty of two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, while two other teens pled guilty for their role in instigating the fight which preceded the attack.[137][138]
2020 Trier attack, Germany. Five people were killed and 30 were injured after a drunk man, who suffered from mental health problems, rammed civilians on a street.[143]
2021 Portland, Oregon ramming attack, one pedestrian killed and five others wounded. Driver arrested.[144]
2021 Novara ramming, Italy. Driver intentionally rammed workers protesting outside a market. One worker was killed, and two others were wounded.[145]
2021 Lakhimpur-Kheri Massacre in India. A Convoy of BJP ministers mowed down four protesting farmers. In retaliation, farmers killed four people from the convoy.
2019 Tokyo car attack (ramming and stabbing and attempted kerosene arson attacks). 8 people were injured by vehicle ramming, with another person also injured after the attacker struck him while getting out of the car. The suspect claims that the attack was in retaliation for the execution of Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult members.[147]
2020 Volkmarsen ramming attack: On 24 February 2020, a 29-year-old man rammed his car against civilians at a carnival parade in Volkmarsen, Germany, wounding 122 people. The motive behind the attack is unknown.[148]
June 2021 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Pride Parade: A pickup truck driver killed one person and injured another on 19 June 2021. All three individuals were connected with the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men's Chorus.[149]
June 2021 Show Low, Arizona Bicycle Race: A driver struck 7 cyclists. The driver fled the scene and was pursued and shot by police.[150]
2021 Waukesha Christmas parade attack: Darrell Brooks, of Milwaukee, broke through barricades with a red SUV and drove through the annual Waukesha Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring 62 others.[151][152] Brooks was charged with 81 felony and two misdemeanor counts.[153]
February 2022 "A 42yr old male is facing charges after driving through a group of protesters that were part of the Freedom Convoy at the Legislative grounds," the Winnipeg Police tweeted Saturday. "4 adult males were struck."[154]
Weng Sor, a 62-year-old Maylasian man, drove a rented U-Haul truck into pedestrians in Brooklyn, killing 1. He was placed on suicide watch after his arrest.[155]
^David Ormerod, John Cyril Smith & Brian Hogan, Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law (13th ed. 2011: Oxford University Press), p. 1138: "There are at least six ways that a person might be held liable for causing a death by driving. At the most extreme it is possible for D[efendant] to be liable for murder, as when he drivers at V[ictim] with intent to kill or do gbh (great bodily harm)."
^R.G. Smart, "Transport Related Stress" in Stress Consequences: Mental, Neuropsychological and Socioeconomic (ed. George Fink: Academic Press, 2009), p. 708: "A national study in the United States found that ... of respondents ... 1-2% had gotten out of their cars to hurt other drivers, deliberately hit other drivers, or had carried a weapon."
^ abAlan R. Felthouse, "Personal Violence" in The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Forensic Psychiatry (2d ed.: eds. Robert I. Simon & Liza H. Gold), pp. 551-52: "An automobile is a potentially lethal machine. Litigation involving psychiatrists has resulted when a hospitalized patient, after discharges, caused a two-person vehicle accident with death or injuries to one or more victims ... Such cases involve three different types of scenarios. One is the vehicular crash that results from the patient's medication-induced drowsiness at the wheel ... The second scenario is a true accident but is unrelated to any prescribed medication. Rather, the patient's driving is impaired by the disabling effects of mental illness [or] recent consumption of nonprescribed drugs or alcohol. The third situation is when the patient deliberately crashes into another vehicle. Neuropsychiatric conditions that can be associated with an increased risk of vehicular crash include psychotic exacerbation of schizophrenia, profound or suicidal depression, dementia, and disturbances in consciousness, such as epilepsy and narcolepsy."
^Ernest B. Abbott and Otto J. Hetzel, "Homeland Security Begins at Home: Local Planning and Regulatory Review to Improve Security", in Rufus Calhoun Young, Jr. and Dwight H. Merriam, A Legal Guide to Homeland Security and Emergency Management for State and Local Governments, American Bar Association, 2006
